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Women wearing traditional khanga wraps bearing the portrait of US President Barack Obama wait on July 1, 2013 at State House in Dar es Salaam/AFP

Africa

Obama, Bush to team up at Tanzania memorial

Women wearing traditional khanga wraps bearing the portrait of US President Barack Obama wait on July 1, 2013 at State House in Dar es Salaam/AFP

Women wearing traditional khanga wraps bearing the portrait of US President Barack Obama wait on July 1, 2013 at State House in Dar es Salaam/AFP

DAR ES SALAAM, Jul 1 – US President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush will have a rare meeting on Tuesday, to lay a wreath in Tanzania to honour victims of the 1998 US embassy bombing.

Obama flew into Tanzania on the last leg of his three-nation Africa tour on Monday while Bush will be in the country for a forum of regional First Ladies, hosted by his wife Laura, which will also be attended by Michelle Obama.

The current US president came to power after a 2008 election campaign in which he mounted stinging attacks on Bush’s record on foreign policy and the economy.

But Bush, a Republican, has stayed largely out of sight since he left power in 2009, having vowed not to criticise his Democratic successor in public, and Obama aides say the two men have a good personal relationship.

Obama has also praised Bush’s record in Africa, specifically his emergency plan to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which is credited with saving millions of lives, and has been continued into the current presidency.

Obama and Bush last met when the president attended the opening of the Republican’s library in Dallas, Texas in April.

The bombing of the US embassy in Tanzania in 1998, blamed on Al-Qaeda, killed 11 people.

It was timed to coincide with a separate attack on the US embassy in the Kenyan capital Nairobi that left 213 dead and several thousand wounded.

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